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Growing up in Compton: A Woman’s Story

I grew up in Compton, California, a city where law enforcement was not on your side. I can remember times when our house would get shot up and my mother would call the police only to have to wait for hours on end, and sometimes they just didn’t come.

Growing up, our first interactions with police were often arrests for curfew violations. If the police found us out on the street after curfew, they’d lock us up and hold us through the night and not release us until the morning.

I grew up in Compton, California, a city where law enforcement was not on your side.

In the early ‘80s, the city of Compton had started putting up neighborhood watch signs on every block. A sign was placed in front of our house and my mother, being defiant, took it down.

Resist is a foundation that supports people's movements for justice and liberation. We redistribute resources back to frontline communities at the forefront of change while amplifying their stories of building a better world.